Friday 2010-04-02 Video and Discussion Thread

[kestrel79]

Originally Posted by AdMan

If IL-2 looked anything close to this I'd still be playing IL-2

It's starting to look like a game, like the title screen artwork too, hopefully that look will carry on to the UI

I know I don't post here much but I am an avid viewer of anything Storm of War. I hope this really isn't the final logo for the game and box.

As a graphic designer, I like the simple approach but it could use a little more artistic touch to truely be awesome. The "of" appears a little to scrunched and condensed, and I don't like the white stroke around the red text.

I'd like to see something a little more designed like art from the 1930s and 40s. Something thats dirty, gritty, yet clean and professional.

Oleg I'd be more than happy to do some FREE mockups for you for any of the art for the game. Whether it be the UI, splash screens, or box art. I'm sure your publisher will take care of this but I figured I'd offer my services.

m_berndt79@yahoo.com

[Bearcat]

Nice.. I am so looking forward to this sim... visually to me at least WoP is a taste of the kind of stuff that future sims will have.. and SoW looks like it will have all that and then some..

[Avimimus]

Originally Posted by CRO_Adriatic

Thanks! It is nice to see some action in the air

Salute!

P.S. Woos aircraft glass mirroring a big issue in war? It looks like easy way to spot aircraft on long distance...

Yup. That was one of the problems with the German faceted "greenhouse" cockpits. Sometimes enough light would get into the cockpit that a panel would reflect the light back towards the crew. Often FW-189 crews had trouble seeing what they were supposed to be spying on.

[major_setback]

Originally Posted by major_setback

I think it is not just lack of dirt that gives that impression.

The shine on the plane is very even. In real life the paint varies in shininess slightly, and there are small irregularities in the smoothness of the wing metal. Not that there is anything wrong with shine, it is seen a lot on old photos from the period, but it doesn't usually look that even, and it wouldn't show on panel lines etc. that are indented.

We have yet to see a WiP aircraft with part-shiny skin where panel lines and hatch edges don't shine, or where these edges deflect the light in some way. It would be nice if this was possible..but not essential of course.

I am hoping that the shine will be either linked to a separate bump map, or that it can be varied in some way.
I think there will be an editable shine bump map layer for the skins (just guessing though), though it might be disabled in the initial release if they use too many resources.


Oleg? Please comment!


As long as the shine is kept to a minimum it will look good anyway, and especially so if the skins are 'dirty'.

And as far as skins go: I'm certain there will be many user made ones available within the first couple of months of release, and I'm also sure that people will do a nice job of making used and dirty looking skins.





_

Edit: This earlier WiP looks a lot better, panels/hatches seem to change the way light reflects. I would like to know exactly what we are seeing here, if it some sort of map or not that is changing the reflections/shine. Oleg?





Re:

Originally Posted by Zorin

major, that is controlled via a specular map and I really do hope they will be available as part of the skinning abilities in SoW.

Thanks for the information!

[Tempest123]

Excellent, some aspects look photorealistic, glad to see a video!

[Richie]

In one shot you can see in shadow the canopy framing on the engine cowling of the Do-17. Now that's got to be cool.

[AdMan]

Originally Posted by kestrel79

I'd like to see something a little more designed like art from the 1930s and 40s. Something thats dirty, gritty, yet clean and professional.

the art actually struck me as very reminiscent of the airbrush work of that era, such as the propaganda posters and pinup girls.

I wouldn't read to much into the text (pun intended), it was probably just added in for the purpose of this video as it says "bomber attack", but I hope the interface is simple, clean, and intuitive as IL-2's wasn't very much.

[Blackdog_kt]

Viewing it again and browsing the comments here, i think it will be a lot better than what it looks like in the video.

First of all, the smoothness factor is top notch and fluidity can make hi-res graphics appear very impressive, even if they are not technically so. Since this is WIP and we're expecting improvements, i guess it will be even better. Not to mention that high-res fluid motion on a 22" or bigger will look so much better, even if the settings used are the exact same as those used in this video.

The reason it might seem a bit underwhelming to some is that this is low-res youtube (no 720p/1080p option in the video), reflective layers and various effects might probably not be finalised, plus we don't know what was the original resolution used during gameplay, AA/AF settings, if a low-spec PC was used that forced lower detail settings and so on.

Long story short, if this was taken from a dual core or old quad with nVidia 8800 or comparable Ati generation cards i will be very impressed, as it would indicate an ability to scale perfectly and it's not shabby at all. Roll on the next updates with high-res youtube videos running on high end PCs, then we will be able to really decide

[AKA_Tenn]

ya we have no real idea what this video is supposed to depict, or if it was just a quick sketch/scribble just keep our mouths watering (so to speak)... you don't know if anything here will even be in the final version, the best you can do is say probables or.. in this case its quite obvious (even says so in the description) that the gfx are very low quality so all one can really say about this movie is "tks for the first video with some combat type stuff and for showing some more lighting effects"

remember all the juicy bits you won't see till right before the game is released, cause their super top secret... don't want someone else stealing ideas and making them "been there, done that" type stuff, when ur trying to release the most innovative game ever

[proton45]

Originally Posted by Tree_UK

Jeez, calm down girls, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I did say in my post that i recognise how good the lighting is, but the overaul feel for me is still Il2-ish, but like i said its still a WIP. No doubt when we see it in all its glory in directX 11 it will look stunning. Now put your hand bags down.

Thats all I'm saying...